


Plant your love (and let it grow)

by SquaresAreNotCircles



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: (but no actual vegetarianism because this is venom we're talking about), Discussions of Vegetarianism, Domestic Fluff, Other, Plants, Slight Sappiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-14 12:32:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16492670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaresAreNotCircles/pseuds/SquaresAreNotCircles
Summary: If you don’t want us to eat the plant, then why did you offer it to us?“I didn’t. I was just satisfying a scientific curiosity.” Danger of houseplant consumption temporarily averted, he settles the plant on  one of his knees, studying it while he talks. “And maybe wondering if you would, theoretically, consider going vegetarian.”Vegetarian,Venom repeats, like it’s so laughably ridiculous it scares him a bit.Or: In which Eddie and Venom do some gardening and discuss meatless diets (kind of).





	Plant your love (and let it grow)

**Author's Note:**

> You know, I kind of thought that after my first Venom fic, the desire to create alien symbiote fluff would be out of my system, but the fact you’re reading this is proof that obviously didn’t work, gosh. This idea has haunted me ever since I saw the movie for the second time. Now it’s two days after Halloween and the time for hauntings is well and truly over, so I guess I finally had to just write it. 
> 
> The title is from “Let it grow” by Eric Clapton, because I almost went with _I was schooled in the tyranny of nature’s plans_ (from the very similarly named “Will it grow” by Jakob Dylan), but this needed something ten times sappier than that.

Eddie is doing his twice-weekly Watering Of The Plant with a glass from yesterday that was still half full, when something occurs to him. “Do you want to eat it?” he asks his empty room.

**Why would we want to eat it?** the voice in his own head answers. Venom sounds faintly insulted, which in turn annoys Eddie a bit.

“Hey, it’s a fair question. It’s alive.”

**Barely.**

He absently puts the empty glass down on the window sill next to the plant. The odd thing about having conversations with a being inside of your own body is that it gives you nowhere to look while you talk. “Did you just diss my plant?”

**Fine,** Venom grouses. **If it means that much to us, we’ll eat it.**

Eddie’s hand reaches out for the plant without his permission. As soon as Venom makes him pick up the small pot, one of the remaining leaves flutters down to the floor, landing next to Eddie’s socked feet. There is no way Venom can give him a pointed look without taking corporeal form, but he doesn’t really need to.

“That doesn’t mean it’s dead.” 

He plops his ass down on the floor, crossing his legs as well as he can, taking care not to jostle the rest of the plant too badly while he holds it in one hand. He collects the fallen leaf with care, not wanting to know if it will actually make the kind of crunch sound it looks like it would if he crushes it in his hand. The alien presence in his mind doesn’t need to radiate any more smug satisfaction. 

He drops the leaf on the small bit of wet dirt that the plant sprouts from, with the faint hope of a city boy that this is how composting works.

“It’s just fall,” he lies unconvincingly. “You haven’t been on earth long enough to know this, but this is totally normal.”

Venom makes a doubtful noise, but lets it go. **Now eat,** he demands instead. There are still a lot of things Eddie doesn’t know about his symbiote, but Venom has never been ambiguous about his priorities.

Venom forces Eddie’s hand to bring the plant closer to their mouth. Eddie resists, jerking his hand back. The result is that they almost smash his poor, tortured plant into the radiator under the window sill. “Stop! I don’t actually want you to eat it.”

**If you don’t want us to eat the plant, then why did you offer it to us?**

“I didn’t. I was just satisfying a scientific curiosity.” Danger of houseplant consumption temporarily averted, he settles the plant on one of his knees, studying it while he talks. “And maybe wondering if you would, theoretically, consider going vegetarian.”

**Vegetarian,** Venom repeats, like it’s so laughably ridiculous it scares him a bit.

In their brain, images of lobsters and headless torsos war with flashes of baby carrots and the sad, lonely tree on the corner of Eddie’s street. Eddie in vain tries to raise some enthusiasm for a colorful wild rice salad, the kind he used to eat sometimes when Anne still did half the cooking and there was no symbiote dictating his dietary needs.

**Why would anyone want that?**

It seems hopeless to attempt to explain the animal cruelty involved in the meat industry. Appealing to an alien’s humanity is doomed to fail, and Venom likes his meat a little fresher anyway. “It’s good for the environment,” Eddie settles on, after some thinking.

**The environment?** That’s mocking. There is definite mocking now. **Eating people is far better for the environment.**

“I never looked at it that way, I guess,” Eddie has to admit. “Overpopulation _is_ killing the planet.”

**See? We’re doing a good thing. Vegetarianism wouldn’t be ethical.**

“I wouldn’t go quite that far, but okay, point made.”

A thin, black feeler sprouts from Eddie’s shoulder and sneaks over towards the plant. It looks like it’s up to no good, so Eddie swats it away with his free hand before it can disturb any of the remaining leaves. It curls itself around his hand briefly, tangling with his fingers, before retreating into his body like it was never there.

**What do we do with the plant if we don’t eat it?** Venom asks.

Eddie shrugs. “We keep watering it from time to time.”

**Why?**

“Because I like it.” That’s not really an answer, but Eddie doesn’t think he really has one. He surprises himself when he keeps going. “Believe it or not, but this sad, half dead plant was the only thing that kept me company when my life imploded and everyone started ignoring me.”

**You were lonely.**

It’s not a question, but Eddie shrugs again and answers anyway. “Yeah. It happens.”

**Not anymore. You are mine now,** Venom says, and it’s odd how his deep, threatening growl can sound so soft. Eddie is entirely unsure if the warm feeling spreading out from his chest after that is Venom’s doing, or just his own damaged heart responding.

“I know,” he sighs, and he finds himself smiling down at the plant. “That goes both ways.”

This time, some of the deep, abiding satisfaction is definitely Venom’s emotions overflowing into his. **We’ll keep the plant,** Venom decides. **We won’t eat it.**

“What changed your mind?”

**It kept Eddie company before we were together. Clearly, it’s not bad people. Doesn’t deserve to get eaten.**

“Thank you,” Eddie says, hearing a faint undertone of Venom’s rumble in his own voice as they use his hand to guide the plant back to its place on the windowsill, together.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! Comments are your local fic writer's favorite thing. <3
> 
> I'm on Tumblr as [itwoodbeprefect](itwoodbeprefect.tumblr.com), if you want to come visit me!


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